“No.”
“What is it, then?”
“Scared!”And then, still panting violently: “Come to the house,”said he.
Once inside, I brought Tom a dipper of water, which quickly restored him, when, turning his still blanched face towards us, he said:
“Boys, I’ve had the worst scare of my life!”
“How, Tom?”I asked. “That explosion? Was it up at the Pelican?”
“No, it wasn’t; and I didn’t know anything about it until I came up at eleven, when George, who was waiting to go on, told me there had been a heavy explosion down in the direction of my house. When he told me that, there rushed into my head all of a sudden an idea which nearly knocked me over—it was like a blow from a hammer. I grabbed the lantern, which I had just lighted, and ran for it. Can you guess what I expected to find?”
We shook our heads.
“I expected to find my house blown to pieces, and you two boys lying dead out in the rain!”
We stared at him in amazement.